Mersey Valley

Kingfisher, Broad Ees Dole
A nice bird to bring the year list to 100.

Getting to half-past January without having seen a goldcrest seems a bit off somehow so it came as a relief to find one singing in the privet hedge by the station as I passed by. I was on my way to Stretford Meadows, I wanted a walk in the sunshine but wasn't in a mood for gadding about.

Female house sparrow

As I walked down to the end of Newcroft Road the spadgers were very active in the hedgerow. It's not often I get to take photos of spadgers against a clear blue sky so I took the opportunity while I could.

Looking back towards Newcroft Road

Great tits, blue tits and robins rummaged about in the trees by the car park. As I walked up the rise every patch of brambles or hawthorns had at least two blackbirds in there. Magpies, woodpigeons and carrion crows flew about, ring-necked parakeets made a racket in the trees by the cricket pitch and lesser black-backs floated high overhead. It was nice to see the female kestrel back in her favourite tree, I've missed her.

A couple of the patches of scrub held surprises. Two meadow pipits shot out of a bramble patch and the bunting fidgeting about in some hawthorns turned out to be a young male yellowhammer. I'd assumed it was one of the usual reed buntings until it called then I had to spend a couple of minutes tracking it down in the bushes.

Stretford Meadows 

Walking to Stretford Ees 

I walked down to Stretford Ees, the hedgerows bristling with loosely formed mixed tit flocks and even more loosely arranged flocks of goldfinches. A great spotted woodpecker was in the trees just past Chester Road. The pigeons that are nearly invariably gathered under the aquaduct were notably absent; I bumped into them later on, they were all perched on the bridge over the river for some reason or other. Judging by the racket in the trees by the electricity pylons the parakeets are starting to feel frisky.

River Mersey

I crossed the Mersey, which was high and running fast but keeping within its bounds. This end of the lake at Sale Water Park was littered with coots, gulls and gadwalls. The gulls were even numbers of herring gulls and black-headed gulls with a handful of lesser black-backs and a couple of common gulls.

Teal

There were a couple of teal, appropriately enough, with the moorhens on the Teal Pool on Broad Ees Dole. The pool by the hide was very quiet: a couple of teal on the water and a heron hiding in the reeds on the far side. It livened up for a moment as a pair of mallards and a pair of teal flew in then they went to sleep.

There were more mallards and teal in the drain by the path, largely ignoring passersby unless they were accompanied by a dog, in which case they quietly slid into the roots of willow trees. A kingfisher was equally unfussed, fishing from a branch just an arm's length away.

Sale Water Park 

The Eastern side of the lake was busy with mute swans, Canada geese, mallards, tufted ducks and black-headed gulls. The mute swans cruised about the lake in a long line like a bad-tempered train. A few cormorants were hanging out to dry on the slipway and I found a drake goosander drifting about in the company of the pair of great crested grebes.

Sale Water Park 

The light was failing so I had a sit down by the café feeding station before heading home. There were great tits, coal tits and blue tits aplenty but they were heavily outnumbered by the long-tailed tits that had set up camp inside the feeders. I'm used to long-tailed tits being hit-and-run feeders, this was a departure from the norm and quite fun to watch.

Long-tailed tits and great tit